We arrived at the road leading to our Airbnb in Pucon and were faced with driving up a very steep, unpaved scree covered track in our big automatic Chevvy. The tyres span so fast and kicked up so much dust, we thought the car was on fire! It was all worth it – our tiny house overlooked a mountain range including the Andes, fields of horses and an active volcano behind us. Jon, a young American guy, is a kayaking guide and fantastic host, along with his Chilean wife. He lit our wood burning stove in the evening and we watched humming birds in the nearby tree whilst drinking delicious Carmanere Chilean wine. Next day he took us kayaking to a small island in the lake, Isla Allaquillen named after the indigenous Mapuche princess. She allegedly fell in love with a Spanish captain who died – so she climbed a mountain and cried so much she created the lake and the top of the mountain became the island. The lake was glass-like on our 4km trip to the island where we stopped, had lunch and tried to see some of the only inhabitants, giant rabbits – we didn’t find any, but discovered birds eggs, weird tree fungi and bright red flowers as we climbed to the old lighthouse at the top. Choppy waves on the way back created some colourful language but we made it to shore and back to our lovely Airbnb to recoup. A dramatic but unmissable experience.
50somethingnomads 